Restless Legs Syndrome Found a Problem for Children, Too

Restless Legs Syndrome Found a Problem for Children, Too

URBANA, Ill., Aug. 24 -- About 2% of children and adolescents in the U.S. and United Kingdom have restless legs syndrome, estimated an international team on the basis of a large survey.

In the survey of more than 10,000 families in the two nations. 1.9% of those ages eight through 11 and 2% of those ages 12 through 17 had "definite" RLS, Daniel Picchietti, M.D., of the University of Illinois, and colleagues, reported in the August issue of Pediatrics.

Of those, about a quarter to a half reported moderately or severely distressing symptoms that occurred at least twice a week, the researchers found.

Dr. Picchietti said the condition appears to occur more frequently than diabetes and epilepsy, at less than 1% and about 0.05%, respectively.

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